William Lethaby

William Lethaby

Infobox Architect


name=William Lethaby
nationality=British
birth_date=1857
birth_place= Barnstaple, England
death_date=1931
death_place= England
practice_name=
significant_buildings= Avon Tyrell House
Melsetter House
significant_projects=
awards=|

William Richard Lethaby (18 January 1857 - 17 July 1931) was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of conservation and art education.

Life and career

Early life

Lethaby was born in Barnstaple, Devon, the son of a fiercely Liberal craftsman and lay preacher. After an early apprenticeship with a local architect he found work in London in 1879 as Chief Clerk to architect Richard Norman Shaw. Shaw quickly recognized Lethaby's talent as a designer and Lethaby was to contribute significant pieces of work to major Shaw-designed buildings such as Scotland Yard in London and Cragside in Northumberland.

While working for Shaw, Lethaby became involved in the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which campaigned to preserve the integrity and authenticity of older buildings against the Victorian practice of 'improving' them to the point of almost completely rebuilding and redesigning them. Through this he became a personal friend of Arts and Crafts Movement pioneers William Morris and Philip Webb, becoming a significant and influential member of their circle and acting as co-founder of the Art Workers Guild in 1884.

The Guild was formed from a nucleus drawn from two separate groups, the St George’s Art Society, a group of architects who had seen service in the offices of Norman Shaw, including Ernest Newton, Mervyn Macartney, Reginald Barratt, Edwin Hardy, Lethaby and Edward Schroeder Prior, and the Fifteen, founded by the designer and writer Lewis Day and the illustrator and designer Walter Crane. Prior wrote the prospectus for the Guild. It initially met in Newton’s chambers by St George’s Church, Bloomsbury

Independent practice

From 1889 Lethaby worked only part time for Shaw and increasingly practiced independently, designing a wide range of products - books, furniture and stained glass as well as buildings - exploring the mystical symbolism of medieval and non-European design and architecture: themes he was to elaborate in his first and most famous (though arguably least representative) book "Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth", published in 1891. This was the first major work of architectural theory to treat architecture as a system of symbols with identifiable philosophical meanings, rather than as abstract systems of aesthetic principles.

Lethaby finally left Shaw's practice in 1892 after the completion of his first major independent architectural project - the country estate of Avon Tyrell in Hampshire, built for Lord Manners. The next decade was Lethaby's most productive in terms of built works as his contacts in the Birmingham area, where the ideas of the arts and crafts movement were particularly well received, led to series of commissions for buildings in the Midlands or for Birmingham-based clients. He built Monkswood Cottage, Loughton, Essex, for his friend, Hubert Llewellyn Smith.

London County Council

In 1894 Lethaby was appointed Art Inspector to the Technical Education Board of the newly-formed London County Council. Here he had a pioneering role in developing education in the fine and practical arts, most notably as the founder of the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1896. His most significant innovations lay in breaking down academic barriers between design (perceived as an artistic and intellectual pursuit) and production (widely perceived as the less sophisticated activity of the craftsman or artisan). Lethaby believed that this was an artificial distinction and sought to have both taught as equally valuable parts of the process of producing a high quality end-product.

Academic and pioneer of conservation

In 1901 Lethaby was appointed the first Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art. This, coupled with his appointments as Principal of the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1902 and as Surveyor of Westminster Abbey in 1906 meant that he was increasingly devoted to the academic study of the theory and history of architecture and design. He effectively ceased architectural practice around this time, though he remained an immensely influential figure through his writings and teaching. Lethaby's role as a guide and mentor to German Cultural Attaché Hermann Muthesius during his investigations into English architecture was to prove particularly significant in the light of Muthesius's later role as an influence on the early pioneers of the Bauhaus.

At Westminster Abbey, Lethaby was able to put into practice his belief in sympathetic and historically accurate restoration, conducting extensive research into the history of its structure and design and largely setting the template that the restoration and preservation of historic buildings was to follow for the rest of the century.

Influence and reputation

Lethaby has traditionally been seen by figures such as Nikolaus Pevsner as significant primarily in his role as a precursor of the early modern movement. He was the acknowledged theorist behind the work of Ernest Gimson and the group of architect-craftsmen who worked with him in Sapperton, Gloucestershire, intent to found a "school of rational building". Lethaby's emphasis on "good, honest building" is viewed as making explicit the functionalism implicit in the writings and architecture of Pugin, Ruskin and Philip Webb, with his connection to Muthesius as the means through which this idea was to influence the German modernist pioneers.

More recently it has been argued that this represents a considerable over-simplification of Lethaby's complex and sometimes contradictory sets of beliefs. "A house should be as efficient as a bicycle" may presage Le Corbusier, but Lethaby's theories of meaning in architecture and his use of elemental, cosmological and mystical symbolism in his design work can be seen as having more in common with post-modern figures such as Charles Jencks.

Either way, Lethaby remains widely recognized as a figure of pivotal significance in the transition between the architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Major built works

* Avon Tyrell House, near Christchurch, Hampshire (1892)
* The Hurst, Hartopp Road, Four Oaks, Birmingham (1894) - largely demolished
* 122-124 Colmore Row (Eagle Insurance Offices), Birmingham (1900)
* Melsetter House, Gatehouse, Lodge and Chapel, Hoy, Orkney (1900)
* High Coxlease House, Lyndhurst, Hampshire (1902)
* All Saints Church, Brockhampton-by-Ross, Herefordshire (1902)

Major publications

* "Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth" (1891)
* "Mediaeval Art" (1904)
* "Architecture: An Introduction to the History and Theory of the Art of Building" (1912)
* "Form in Civilization: Collected Papers on Art and Labour" (1922)

Links

* [http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/CSM.html Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection] - The museum has a large collection of works by W.R. Lethaby, which are available to view on the [http://www.vads.ac.uk VADS] website.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Lethaby — /ˈlɛθəbi/ (say lethuhbee) noun William Richard, 1857–1931, English architect …  

  • Edward Schroeder Prior — (born 1857 died 1932) was an architect who was instrumental in establishing the arts and crafts movement. He was one of the foremost theorists of the second generation of the movement, writing extensively on architecture, art, craftsmanship and… …   Wikipedia

  • Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design — ] Central Saint Martins establishes links between artistic practice leading to research projects and employs graduates onto international design consultancy schemes through its Innovation Centre and Design Laboratory. Central Saint Martins has… …   Wikipedia

  • Holy Trinity Church, Bothenhampton — Holy Trinity Church is a Church of England parish church at Bothenhampton in the English county of Dorset. It was designed and built by the English arts and crafts architect, Edward Schroeder Prior, in 1884 9.Holy Trinity Bothenhampton was Prior… …   Wikipedia

  • John Brandon-Jones — (September 18,1908 1 May, 1999) was a British architect. His work was heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, of which he was a noted architectural historian.Life and careerBrandon Jones was born in Hendon into a family with a strong… …   Wikipedia

  • List of historic buildings and architects of the United Kingdom — The Historic buildings of the United Kingdom date from the stone age to the twenty first century AD, and tell the story of the architecture of the United Kingdom.See also: List of British architects Pre Historic buildings structures Roman… …   Wikipedia

  • Randall Wells — Albert Randall Wells (1877 1942) was an English architect who worked principally in the Arts and Crafts style.He was the son of an architect, Arthur Wells of Hastings. [ [http://www.codexgeo.co.uk/dsa/architect full.php?id=M001992 DSA biography]… …   Wikipedia

  • Arts and Crafts Movement — The Arts and Crafts Movement was a British, Canadian, and American aesthetic movement occurring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. Inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and a romantic idealization of… …   Wikipedia

  • Philip Webb — Infobox Architect name=Philip Speakman Webb nationality=British birth date=1831 birth place= Oxford, England death date=1915 death place= Worth, Sussex, England practice name= significant buildings= Standen Red House, Bexleyheath significant… …   Wikipedia

  • Hartley Wintney — is a village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire.Location and characterHartley Wintney is located at gbmapping|SU764567 in the Hart district of North East Hampshire. The parish includes the joined village of Phoenix Green to the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”